This ebook is available for the following devices:

iPhone

iPad

Android

Kindle Fire

Windows

Mac

Sony Reader

Cool-er Reader

Nook

Kobo Reader

iRiver Story

About the author

Ron Brown is a Toronto writer and geographer. His passion for Canada's vanishing heritage landscapes have carried him form the remote outports of Newfoundland to the ghosted mining camps of British Columbia. His books have brought Canadians, and especially those in Ontario, closer to their unusual landscapes and heritage features. His titles have included books on ghost towns, back roads, unusual wonders of the landscape, and a vanishing railway heritage. He lectures, guides tours, and advises business groups on the heritage which lies in their own back yards. He is also past chair of the Writers Union of Canada.

more

Despite the "green" benefits of rail travel, Canada has lost much of its railway heritage. Across the country stations have been bulldozed and rails ripped up. Once the heart of communities large and small, stations and tracks have left little more than a gaping hole in Canada’s landscapes. This book revisits the times when railways were the country’s economic lifeline, and the station the social centre. Here was where we worked, played, listened to political speeches, or simply said goodbye to loved ones never knowing when they would return. The landscapes which grew around the station are also explored and include such forgotten features as station hotels, restaurants, gardens and the once common railway YMCA. Railway companies often hired the world’s leading architects to design grand station buildings which ranged in style from chateau-esque to art deco. Even small town stations and wayside shelters displayed an artistic flare and elegance. Although most have vanished, the book celebrates the survival of that heritage in stations which have been saved or indeed remain in use. The book will appeal to anyone who has links with our rail era, or who simply appreciates the value of Canada’s built heritage.